Holding the picnic basket, Jamie led the way up the steep, narrow, winding track that quickly gave them height; in no time at all they could see the sweep of the Borrowdale Road, which wound its way circuitously through rocky crags and belts of woodland, until it came to the village of Grange, where the road ran parallel with the clear bubbling river all the way into the village of Rosthwaite. As the morning sun rose higher in the sky, Ada began to flag. Finding a cool grassy spot on a rocky outcrop with stunning views both ways, Jamie settled a blanket on the ground and Ada gratefully sank down on to it.

‘Off you go, have fun,’ she urged. ‘I promise I won’t eat all the sandwiches.’

Once her husband had gone leaping and bounding up the mountainside, Ada drank a mug of tea from the Thermos they had brought along with them, then settled back on the blanket, where, shading her eyes against the blinding bright sun, she watched swallows swooping and diving high up in the vaulted blue sky. Suddenly overcome with fatigue, she closed her eyes and in no time at all was fast asleep. When she awoke, it was to find Jamie grinning down at her.

‘The hunter warrior returns,’ he joked, as he slumped beside her. ‘Mmm, these sandwiches are delicious,’ he said, as he took a bite from one of the egg-and-cress sandwiches Ada had prepared for their picnic.

‘There’s cheese and pickle too,’ she said as she poured out more tea. ‘And a bit of the gingerbread cake and apples, another gift from Farmer Arkwright, from his apple cellar.’

‘Here’s to Farmer Arkwright,’ Jamie cried, raising his mug of hot tea. ‘The man’s better than Father Christmas!’

Once they had demolished their picnic, Ada sighed with contentment as she leant against Jamie.

‘These are days that memories are made of,’ she said dreamily.

Jamie stiffened as if he were suddenly uncomfortable. ‘Darling,’ he said, ‘there’s something I have to tell you.’

Suddenly alert, Ada sat bolt upright. ‘What is it? What’s wrong?’

Drawing her back towards the warmth of his body, Jamie finally told Ada what he had been dreading telling her since he arrived home. Now that he had made his opening gambit, he came straight to the point.

‘My team are being posted to North Africa.’

Rigid in his arms, Ada found herself unable to speak. ‘The Eighth Army are out there,’ he started.

Ada gave an impatient nod. ‘Yes, I know,’ she said shortly.

She had read all about the North African campaign, which was being fought in the Libyan and Egyptian deserts; she just never imagined, goodness only knows why, that Jamie would ever be caught up in that campaign.

‘They’re desperately in need of medical clearing stations,’ Jamie explained.